Contributor: Gregg Wright
Written by Jennifer Salt
Directed by Jeremy Podeswa
As the mid-season finale, “The Coat Hanger” begins progressing the plot at a faster pace and slowly venturing back to explore some of the elements that have been somewhat neglected for a few episodes now. I’ve been a bit worried, because the episodes have started to blur together a bit, offering up more of the same, with little in the way of significant change to the status quo. There were exceptions, like Grace’s “death” and Sister Jude’s fall from power, but the overall situation had started to become disappointingly static.
Thankfully, this episode takes some steps to rectify that problem. It’s still not a spellbinder, and might even seem a bit anti-climactic for a mid-season finale, but it has enough interesting moments and reveals to make it a bit better than many previous episodes; at least in regard to the serialized storytelling goals of the show. It still feels like the best episodes are yet to come, after the mid-season break.
In the meantime, the writers have been basically playing around with a lot of ideas while they wait for the go ahead to start moving things in a more definite direction. That involves the return of the aliens, and a very alive and very pregnant Grace. I like that the writers didn’t waste any more time with Arden’s journey to belief in the existence of the aliens, and immediately jumped into having him and Kit work together to lure the aliens back to Briarcliff.
I also liked that Arden so quickly recognized the connection between Kit having sex with women and the subsequent abductions. He even went further, casting aside the admittedly silly idea of hybrids, and settled upon the idea of eugenics. It’s fitting, given that this area of research has been the target of his own obsession for at least the past couple of decades. Arden would already be interested enough in the aliens simply out of scientific curiosity, but this gives him a more pressing reason for wanting to learn more about them.
As much as I’m enjoying the alien storyline, it feels more separated from the rest of the show than ever before. Early on, the pairing of classic UFO lore and demonic possession was an audacious and amusing creative choice, which I assumed would eventually come together in a meaningful way. That hasn’t happened yet, and so the season still lacks the thematic strength of the first season. Season 2 seems to be trying to say so many things at once that it’s not even sure itself what it all means.
Of course, a resolution is yet to come. Everything may come together quite nicely in the end. But I still feel that the plotting and themes are not quite as clear and focused as they need to be. I’d suggest that the season ought to have lowered its ambitions somewhat, but I don’t think that this is the problem. From the very start, I recognized a gold mine of potential in the highly eclectic and unusual blend of concepts. It’s just that the writers haven’t capitalized on them as often or as well as they could have.
I was pleased to see a return to the present-day Bloody Face storyline, but this scene left me feeling somewhat ambivalent. It’s great to see Dylan McDermott returning in the role, and I appreciated the answers we got about Modern Bloody Face. It seems that he really is the son of Dr. Oliver Thredson, having somehow inherited the elder Thredson’s dark compulsions. The scene works well enough, but it all feels a bit too obvious and generic. I hope that there’s a bit more to this than meets the eye.
I’ve spent a lot of time ragging on Sister Jude’s storyline, and though I maintain that her storyline has gradually become one of the weaker areas of the show, the context provided by this episode makes me think I may have judged a little harshly. Dragging out her storyline so long was part of the problem, as it obscured what is a rather respectable character arc. It seems somehow so fitting to see Sister Jude reduced to living at Briarcliff among the patients she had previously been so abusive towards.
Her storyline has resulted in actual growth for her character. It’s only now that she’s hit absolute rock-bottom that she can gain the humility needed to apologize to Lana and become an ally, if not a friend. You’d think that my favorite moment of the week would be the re-appearance of the aliens (well, they don’t actually appear) and Pepper’s wild transformation, but I think that one is slightly upstaged by Sister Jude taking that “Dominique” record out of the turntable and smashing it to pieces, eliciting cheers from the rest of the patients and an impressed acknowledgement from Lana.
There are four episodes left in the season, which seems like plenty to wrap things up in. I have hopes that the writers will take this opportunity to get a little bolder with the storytelling. And it’s also likely that Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk would have an increased involvement in these final episodes, so we’re likely to begin to get a better idea of where all of this is going. It’s kind of refreshing to know that it’s all going to come to an end in the next four episodes, and won’t simply set things up for a subsequent season.
Score: 7/10
